Today's News

A fact-finding mission by Carroll County officials to Randolph Park’s pool found the recreational facility well planned and popular.
Various representatives of Carroll, including Board of Supervisors Chairman Sam Dickson and Recreation Director Sam McLendon, recently explored the park in Pulaski County to gauge how the pool works.
The visit came as enthusiasm builds among Carroll County citizens for a similar recreational effort close to home.

INDEPENDENCE — A request to release a Galax man from jail and confine him to his home on electronic monitoring was denied following a hearing last Wednesday in Grayson County Circuit Court.
Judge David Milesco listened to testimony for about half an hour before making his ruling.
Fred Lee Sweet, 69, was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual battery during his trial on June 17, 2010. The alleged offenses occurred in April 2007 and involved a girl who was five years old at the time.

Old video footage, music recordings and photos are helping to keep alive the memory and musical influence of the late Greg Hooven, a Galax native and beloved fiddle player.
Karin Marro Magno became friends with him in 1989 and joined his band, Greg Hooven and The Galax Way. She has begun a not-for-profit project in an effort to remember and pass on Hooven’s influence to upcoming old-time musicians.

A Galax native has explored his hometown’s darkest corners to reveal tales of terror and the unknown.
Brandon Ayers hopes these legends, extracted from locals and presented by professional storytellers and guides, will educate and enthrall during the Ghosts of Galax Haunted Historic Walking Tour.

A Grayson County man died in a single-vehicle wreck when his pickup truck hit a tree near Elk Creek on Aug. 3.
Allen Wayne Brown, 44, of Elk Creek, lost control of his 2006 Chevrolet Silverado extended-cab pickup and ran off the right side of Comers Rock Road about 11 p.m. on Aug. 3. The driver overcorrected, crossed both lanes and struck a tree head-on.
Brown was not wearing a seat belt and was partially ejected from the vehicle, according to Virginia State Trooper Jerry Sowers.

To those who attend the Old Fiddlers’ Convention, Galax isn’t a place, it’s a state of mind.
When they say, “Do you remember that jam in the handicapped Porta-John at Galax?” they don’t mean the city, they mean the event.
(They not only once had a full band in the Porta-John, they also had dancers.)

HILLSVILLE — High school teachers cheered the notion that they could move back in after leaving the Carroll County Public Schools “system-wide convocation” and training session on Aug. 3.
On the first workday session, themed “We Are Family,” newly-minted Superintendent Strader Blankenship noted that school system employees lean on each other when they find a problem or face a deadline.

CANA — The Twin County Drug Task Force issued a search warrant at 53 Amazing Grace Lane in Cana last Thursday morning, as part of an investigation of methamphetamine manufacturing.
Authorities in clinical-looking white coveralls and breathing masks spread out meth-making items and ingredients on a tarp in front of the home, under the shade of a tree on the warm and sunny summer day.
Charged as a part of the investigation were father and son Roger Jessup Hiatt, 46, and Roger Ernest Hiatt, 25, who lived at the address.